Make equality and justice traditional
by Seán Marlow
So Tony Blair has called on British armed service employers to
take strong action against English soccer hooligans. If thugs
really were to be thrown out of the British Army and RAF, it
would drastically reduce their numbers and would be a great boost
to the demilitarisation campaign.
However, doesn't it say everything about Britain's attitude to
Ireland when their prime minister can call for soldiers to be
sacked for causing embarrassment to their country in France but
are encouraged to continue their British Army career when
convicted for the murder of unarmed Irish people. Corporals Ian
Thain and Lee Clegg even managed to get promotion after serving
all of two years for murder. But even they were unlucky compared
to the hundreds of British soldiers and RUC members who have
directly killed nearly 400 Irish citizens, including several
children killed with both lead and plastic bullets. Apart from
Thain, Clegg, Fisher and Wright, not one of these killers has
served a day in jail; many (like the officers in charge of Bloody
Sunday and the RUC Commander responsible for killing Nora McCabe)
have been honoured and promoted and their victims have been
ignored by the media and establishment politicians.
It is worth bearing all this in mind next time we hear these
media and political hacks using the feelings of victims as an
excuse to stall the release of prisoners who have served up to 23
years or to set preconditions about the decommissioning of
weapons. These hypocrites totally disregard the victims of
British Forces. Every day their bereaved families have to face
the prospect of meeting their loved ones' killers still deploying
their weapons aggressively (as we saw on Garvaghy Road two weeks
ago) and never having spent a day in jail for their crimes.
Republicans should continually insist that all of these
``controversial'' issues (weapons, prisoners, policing, parades,
etc) be addressed on the basis of equality. British Army and RUC
weapons (and those they supplied to loyalist death squads) should
be removed from Irish streets - just because they are legal
doesn't make them any less lethal. Republican and loyalist
prisoners should be treated on the same basis as Ian Thain and
Lee Clegg; that is, they should have been released years ago.
The RUC - who, under the political control of then Minister for
Home Affairs (and current deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist
Party), John Taylor, started the ``Troubles'' by killing Samuel
Devenney, Francie McCloskey and nine year old Patrick Rooney
before the IRA fired a shot - needs to be disbanded. Chief
Constable Flanagan's unguarded admission that he would
``absolutely'' force yet another march through nationalist Garvaghy
Road if (when!) the Spirit of Drumcree threaten to use ``whatever
means necessary'' is a clear invitation to the most reactionary
elements of Unionism to intimidate, burn out and kill (remember
Michael McGoldrick) Catholics. It proves that the RUC hasn't
changed its inherent inequality and needs to be replaced with an
unbiased policing service.
With the threat of the ``marching season'' now upon us, we need to
look at how to achieve equality on parades. I see three
possibilities:
- ban all parades - but I can't see the Orange Order giving up
all their marches on the Twelfth of July;
- allow anyone to march anywhere - but I can't see nationalists
being allowed to march through the centre of Portadown, never
mind through a loyalist area;
- parades should not go where they are not wanted - this is
obviously the fairest solution and dialogue should take place
between prospective marchers and host communities to reach
agreement.
d no-one is fooled by the spurious claim that Orange parades
are different because they are ``traditional''. After all, slavery,
apartheid and the denial of the vote to women were once
traditional but that doesn't mean they were right!
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